


Read It And Weep

by mikeyrevengeway



Category: Fall Out Boy, Halsey (Musician), Marina & the Diamonds, Melanie Martinez (Musician), Mindless Self Indulgence, My Chemical Romance, PVRIS (Band), Panic! at the Disco, Paramore, The 1975 (Band), Twenty One Pilots
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Ashley is the best, Drama, F/M, Genderfluid Character, I care more about the cat than tyler and i have no regrets, M/M, Other, Suicide mention, Trans Character, ashley has no chill, drama club thing, frank is always sick, please help him, there are actually a bunch of straight people
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-15
Updated: 2016-06-26
Packaged: 2018-07-18 10:30:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,463
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7311325
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mikeyrevengeway/pseuds/mikeyrevengeway
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gerard knew it wouldn't be simple: starting at a new school was hard enough, but with the fact that he was trans he would probably get murdered within the first week. It must've been God telling him he was fucked when he got cramps barely five minutes into homeroom, making him go to the nurses office to meet a boy he couldn't see behind a curtain and a nurse so nice she couldn't have been real. </p><p>That turns out to be the start of something complicated, amazing, and just plain dramatic.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Read It And Weep

“Ms. Way, if you could just fill out some forms we can get your son and daughter into classes A-S-A-P.” The secretary chirped, buzzing with energy. Must’ve been the coffee. 

Gerard was sitting in a chair in the office, Mikey next to him. Gerard tensed when the secretary had said ‘daughter’, and he felt Mikey’s eyes on him as well. He knew he didn’t pass right now, this morning he’d barely gotten up before his mother threw a granola bar at him and loaded Mikey and him into the car. It wasn’t like he passed in general -his boobs were a C cup for christs sake- but he could’ve put more effort into his appearance, it was the first day of school after all.

His mom had said it would be a new start: both he and Mikey would make new friends, create new memories, and have a lot of fun. But it was December now, just three weeks until Christmas break. Gerard knew that making friends in highschool was hard enough, but making them a few months into the year as a trans boy would probably be hell. Maybe one of the more tame layers of Hell, like Limbo. In all honesty, Gerard knew he’d probably end up in the sixth layer for Heresy, because he was about as unorthodox as someone could be. But he wasn’t in Hell yet, so he had to wait for his sentence.

In the meantime he was sentenced to the lovely torment of high school: homophobia, stress, existential psychological pain if you got enough shit thrown at you all at once, and the ever so lovely tiers of popularity.

This was going to be fun.

“Alright Ms. Way, here are Katherine and Michael’s schedules. They also have their homeroom and locker numbers on the back, including the combination. Have a nice day!” Gerard’s mom nodded in appreciation, walking over to her children.

“Okay, take these,” She handed Gerard and Mikey their respective schedules with a smile. “You’ll be fine guys. It just takes one day at a time.” Gerard recognized the mantra from her Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. It was a good saying, Gerard had been living by it for the past six years, ever since his mom came home with her twenty-four hour coin and said that exact phrase.

But high school wasn’t as simple as alcoholism, so he just let his mom say what she probably imagined was life-changing for her kids. Gerard wasn’t trying to be rude, he just knew how his mother thought.

“Okay mom, see you after school.” He finally said, because someone had to break the silence between Mikey and him. Their mom hugged them tightly before walking out of the office, leaving the two boys to stand up and walk into the hallway of their new school.

The bell was about to ring from what Gerard could tell, kids were lined up against the lockers and talking, an obvious buzz about the school. What it was, Gerard had no idea.

Mikey’s locker was in the freshman wing, so he left Gerard with a quick hug and a whisper of “good luck”. It was hard to believe Mikey as a freshman; he was five foot seven already, and the doctor said he still had a few more inches in him. He towered over Gerard, him being a measly five foot four and looking more like a seventh grader than a junior in high school.

He weaved through the students to his locker, next to a tall girl with black hair pulled into pigtails and red lipstick. She was wearing a plaid skirt and a leather jacket covered in buttons Gerard wasn’t tall enough to read discreetly. She didn’t look at Gerard or even seem to acknowledge his existence, which was fine for him, he didn’t want too much attention from a girl who looked like she could kick Gerard’s ass and hand it to him.

The bell rung suddenly, jolting Gerard just as he’d opened his locker. He closed it and turned around to face the sea of students heading into the classrooms lining the hallways. It was easy for Gerard to not get caught up in the current, as his small frame allowed him to stay almost flat against the wall of lockers until the sea passed. 

It took a while to die down, but the crowd eventually trickled to just a few straggling students going to their homeroom. Gerard looked down at his schedule and saw that he was in room 116: Mrs. Castor. He followed the map that accompanied his schedule- really, these people had thought of everything- and walked into the room just before the second bell rang to signify he was late.

All eyes turned to him standing in the doorway and Gerard could feel them scanning him, determining which group he’d fit in, whether they would accept him into their clique or not. These kids didn’t seem any different than the ones at his last school, but the teacher was severely different.

She couldn’t have been more than forty, with curly black hair and a bright yellow top that just made her hair seem even darker as it brushed the fabric on her shoulders. She was looking at Gerard as well, walking up to him as he stepped further into the room.

“You must be the new student, er,” She looked at her hand, where there was a name scribbled in blue ink. “Katherine Way?” Gerard nodded, appreciating that she was addressing him and not the entire class in her question. This was easier than being asked loudly if you were the right kid.

“What do you prefer to be called?” Gerard wasn’t sure he’d heard her right. It took a moment for him to respond because of it, he gave a slight shake of his head before he responded.

“Uh, Gee, if that’s alright. It's my middle name.” Mrs. Castor nodded and gave Gerard a small smile.

“Oh it’s completely alright! We actually have a few other students who go by their middle names. It’s no big deal. Nice hair, by the way.” Gerard touched the teal roots of his hair that had been dyed only a few days ago when he had found out the school allowed dyed hair as the teacher turned away to address the class.

“Guys. Guys! Listen up!” The class stopped it’s chatting to face the front of the room where Gerard and Mrs. Castor stood.

“This is Gee, they’ll be in our homeroom, so try to be welcoming. You can sit next to Alex, Gee.” 

Gerard took a second to look at Mrs. Castor before sitting next to the kid she’d indicated. Alex didn’t try to start a conversation with him, and Gerard did the same. He was perfectly happy staring at his schedule and thinking of ways to get through the school day without talking to anyone unless absolutely necessary. 

Gerard had only been in homeroom for a few minutes before he felt a familiar twisting sensation in the pit of his stomach. The pain hit him like a truck and he inhaled sharply as another cramp hit him. 

_ What perfect fucking timing, _ he thought as he lowered his head onto the desk, grimacing from the pain. Gerard was one of the “lucky” people who got cramps when he wasn’t even on his period, and on top of that, they were incredibly painful, so this was basically the perfect start at a new school: silently screaming in pain during homeroom.

He kept his head on the desk for about a minute, breathing in and out slowly while clutching his stomach tightly, as if that would stop the pain. Mrs. Castor seemed to notice that he wasn’t doing so hot, as she came over while Gerard was contemplating whether or not to just scream in agony at this point.

“Gee, are you okay?” She whispered, Gerard looking up at her through the hair that had fallen over his face.

“Not really.” He whispered back, as another cramp hit him and he bit his lip to keep from crying out. Mrs. Castor’s eyes showed concern, and she lowered herself until she was at eye level with Gerard.

“You you want to go to the nurse? Do you know where it is?” Gerard nodded to answer both questions, managing to stand himself up and walk to the door without a hitch. 

He remembered seeing the nurse's office on his way to homeroom, so finding it was quick. He knocked on the door before walking -more like stumbling- into the room. It was relatively small, smaller than a classroom at least, with a curtain across half of the back wall. There was a counter with blue cabinets over it, and the smell of air freshener permeated the room. The woman whom Gerard assumed to be the nurse was sat down at a desk in front of the counter, organizing papers and typing things into her desktop. It took her about a minute to notice Gerard standing in the doorway.

“Oh God how long have you been standing there? Sorry I didn’t notice you before! What’s up?” She got up and felt Gerard’s head before sitting him down in a chair across from the desk.

“What’s your name honey?” She asked, before looking back up at Gerard. “Are you new here?” Gerard nodded. “It’s my first day.” The nurse gave him a short look of sympathy before checking her computer.

“Are you… Katherine or Michael?” She asked, eyes still on the screen.

“Katherine… but I prefer, uh, Gerard.” Gerard lowered his voice towards the end, but the nurse still heard him. She looked up from her computer screen at that, a bit of surprise in her eyes, but that was soon replaced by an understanding smile.

“That’s fine, I get it. My daughter, Lilly, she’s trans too. She’s twenty two now.” She smiled at Gerard again before looking at him like she’d just realized something.

“Oh sorry, I forgot. What’s up?” She looked at how Gerard was basically doubled over with his arms wrapped around his stomach, and then seemed to understand.

“Cramps?” Gerard nodded vigorously, and it seemed that just the mention of the word increased the level of pain. The nurse was quick to search through the cabinets, pulling out a bottle of Midol.

“We’re technically not supposed to give this to students, but it can be used for “severe emergencies”, and based on the fact that you’re doubled over in pain right now, I think this qualifies as an emergency.” She gave Gerard two of the Midol tablets and a plastic cup of water, and Gerard quickly popped the pills into his mouth and took a swig of water to wash it down. 

“Those can take around twenty minutes to work, so I’ll let you stay here until they kick in and you feel a little better. It should last you about six hours so you’ll probably be good for the day. Just tell me when you feel better, because I’ll have to write you a pass so you can get back into class.” Gerard nodded and relaxed into the chair, breathing and taking sips of water while waiting for the Midol to kick in.

There was a sudden groan from the back of the room, the nurse shooting out of her chair and peering behind the curtain.

“You good, Frank?” The nurse asked, and Gerard heard a shuffling from behind the curtain before ‘Frank’ spoke.

“Well, Molly-” “Frank you need to stop calling me that.” “Molly, I feel like my stomach is waging war on me, my head feels like it got hit by some cymbals, and on top of that I have a cold. So I’m pretty good if you ask me.” Gerard could hear the smile in the boy’s voice, and could hear the nurse’s sigh of ‘what am I going to do with you’ directed at Frank.

“Did you take your antibiotics this morning?” She asked. Frank laughed and said: “absolutely not.” Gerard smiled. Frank sounded like a funny guy.

“Frank… you need to remember to take them. This’ll just keep happening if you don’t.” The nurse said, Frank replying back with something too soft for Gerard to hear. The conversation continued and Gerard just tapped his fingers on his thigh and waited for the Midol to kick in.

About twenty minutes later, just like the nurse had said, Gerard’s cramps were gone, and he asked the nurse for a pass back to class.

Gerard walked back to his homeroom to grab his schedule, which wasn’t too bad. He got a couple looks from the kids in the class Mrs. Castor was teaching (which was English) but he just grabbed his stuff and left the class to go to his.

He had science right now, in room 121. He followed the map to the science wing and tried the door, only finding it to be locked. Someone quickly came to the door, from the looks of it he was the teacher, and let him in.

“And you are?” The teacher asked, gaining the classes attention in a second.

“I’m Gee Way, uh, it’s my first day. Sorry I’m late, I was in the nurse.” He handed the pass to the teacher, who looked at it and nodded.

“Okay Gee. There’s an open seat next to Evan at the table over there. The class was just working on a little review packet for the unit we’re working on. Just ask your tablemates for help if you need it.” Gerard nodded and walked over to the table the teacher had pointed out, sitting down in the empty seat.

The teacher, who introduced himself as Mr. Harris, gave Gerard the packet everyone was working on and sat down at his desk, messing with something on his computer. Gerard looked down at the packet, reading the bold print at the top:

**REPRODUCTION REVIEW PACKET**

Gerard breathed a sigh of relief. He actually knew quite a bit about the reproductive systems, as he was a  _ huge _ science nerd. He borrowed a pencil from the kid next to him and began filling in the answers. He breezed through the packet, finishing in about ten minutes, which had the kid next to him mumbling under his breath about ‘the fucking nerds’.

Gerard didn’t care, he just looked at his schedule and at the other students around the class until the bell rang and it was time to leave. He gathered his things and started walking towards the door, only to be stopped by Mr. Harris calling him over to his desk.

“Here’s your textbook for the year, Gee. I look forward to seeing how you’ll be as a student.” Gerard nodded and took the book, walking out the door. 

There was a girl there waiting for him. She had bleach-blonde hair cut just a few inches below her shoulders, and she was just barely shorter than Gerard.

“Hi! I’m Hayley. You’re Gee, right?” Gerard nodded and Hayley smiled widely at him.  “What class do you have next?” She asked.

“Gym. You?” He said. Hayley looked at her schedule.

“Same here.” Hayley smiled at that. “I’ll lead you, follow me!” 

-

Hayley walked quickly and took a lot of random turns in the hallway, but overall she got Gerard to the locker room without him getting murdered so he didn’t have any complaints.

The moment Gerard walked into the locker room he knew he was fucked. It was hot and stuffy, the room full of conversations that all blended together into a giant ball of loud. 

“Come on! I’ll get you a uniform!” Hayley yelled over the noise. She grabbed Gerard’s wrist and pulled him deeper into the locker room, some of the girls giving Gerard a side eyed glance that he had gotten plenty of times before. Hayley pulled him to a door near the back of the locker room that just said “Jones” on the front of it. She knocked and the door opened to reveal a woman with greying hair in blue athletic clothes and a zip-up school hoodie. 

“Williams, is this a newbie?” The presumed gym teacher asked, her voice scratchy.

“Yeah. This is Gee, um…” Hayley looked to Gee for his last name.

“Oh, uh. Way. Gee Way.” Gerard said to the teacher, who was looking him up and down.

“You’ll need a uniform. Do you have sneakers?” She and Gerard looked down at his converse. “Close enough.” She said, disappearing back into her office for a minute. She came back out with a grey shirt and a pair of black shorts.

“Get changed, Way. You too Williams.” The teacher said, closing the door to her office. Gerard turned to Hayley and said: “well she seems fun.”

Hayley laughed. “You get used to her. C’mon, we need to change.” Hayley led Gerard to a more quiet part of the locker room -the showers. Nobody was in there except for them, so Gerard didn’t feel too awkward when he changed. The uniform fit him pretty well, which was good. 

“Alright ladies get a move on!” Jones shouted. Hayley grabbed Gerard’s wrist and pulled him out of the locker room after the rest of the girls.

Warm ups weren’t too bad, just some jumping jacks and stretching, but the main agenda of the class was dodgeball, so that was just  _ perfect. _

“Dodgeball is sorta like the hunger games, the balls in the middle are the cornucopia, and the gym is the arena.” Hayley said to Gerard quietly as they took their places on their side of the gym.

“There are more than twenty four people though, so it’s like a quarter quell whenever we play it.” She continued, and once Jones blew the whistle, the balls started flying.

Gerard held in a laugh at the thought, but soon realized he was going to be screwed if he didn’t move, so he took the ball that rolled up to him next and chucked it as hard as he could.

-

Their team lost, but Gerard didn’t really give a fuck, because he wasn’t that into sports anyway and couldn’t give any bit of a shit about how the popular jock boys on their team whined like children after losing a game of fucking  _ dodgeball _ .

After gym he had math and art, which went on as the usual routine for the new kid: say who you are, find a seat, find out what the hell is going on in the class, and trying not to say anything that will piss off anyone (too much).

Those classes went by rather smoothly, and Gerard was feeling pretty good about the day so far when he looked at his schedule again.

_ Lunch. _

It wasn’t a big deal, while at the same time it was a huge deal. Gerard just shook his head and followed the map to the cafeteria, which was almost intimidating to him.

From what he saw it was just the eleventh grade, so h wouldn’t be embarrassing himself in front of the whole school if he did something stupid. He could tell who the popular kids are and who the not-so-popular kids were. There as one table of people where almost everyone had a leather jacket, and Gerard’s first though was immediately to call them ‘the edgy table’, which he thought suited them pretty well. There was also a table with only two boys sitting at it, one with dyed red hair and a baseball cap while the other had close-cropped brown hair and his head on the table.

Gerard decided it would be best if he didn’t sit with the guy who looked like he was having a mental breakdown, and the edgy table would probably skin him just so he would wear a leather jacket of his flesh (that hardly made sense), so he just stood there at the door looking at the cafeteria and not knowing where the fuck to go.

“Hey Gee! We’ve got a seat for you!” A familiar voice called out, and Gerard saw Hayley waving to him from a table against the wall.

He took a seat and Hayley called attention to the rest o the table, which was a pretty colorful cast of character to Gerard. There was a girl with half her head bleached blonde, and a boy with eyeliner wearing a pink flower crown. There was also a girl wearing a blue pair of overalls with the batman logo on the front and electric blue eyeliner, and another boy with a Letterman jacket and choker necklace.

“Guys, this is Gee. introduce yourselves to her.” Gerard bit his lip when Hayley said ‘her’ but didn’t say anything right away.

The girl with the half bleached hair introduced herself as Melanie, the boy with the flower crown introduced himself as Ryan, the girl in the overalls called herself Marina, and the boy in the choker called himself Matty. There was also a girl named Sarah and a boy named Taylor towards the end of the table, who said hi to Gerard as well.

“So, Gee, tell us about yourself.” Ryan said, leaning forward on his elbows towards Gerard.

“Well I moved here from New Haven, I, uh, go by he and him pronouns, and I like comic books? Everyone perked up a bit when Gerard said he went by he/him pronouns, but nobody seemed angry or disgusted about it, which seemed like a good thing to Gerard at least.

“So you’re trans?” Matty asked, and Gerard nodded, while inside he was screaming: ‘ _ don’t freak out don’t freak out don't freak out’ _ .

“Okay, that’s cool. Nice hair, by the way.” Matty said, which was possibly the most calm reaction anyone had ever had.

“Oh, uh, thanks.”

“So, Gee. Have you ever thought about being in a play?” Hayley asked, which made Ryan, Marina and Matty groan

“Already trying to lure him into the drama club, Hayley. He’s been here for like three minutes!” Ryan laughed, shaking his head at Hayley.

“What? I’m just asking.” She said, turning back to Gerard. “So, have you?”

“Yeah actually,” Gerard started, which had Ryan turning his head. “I’ve actually been in some before in middle school and one in my last school.”

“Well shit then you’ll fit right in with us.” Ryan said. “We’ve been in every play since we’ve been in this school, and we’re basically the biggest fucking drama geek club since glee.” Gerard laughed at that.

“Seriously, we’re losers. Run while you can.” Ryan said, and Gerard just laughed again.

“He’s over exaggerating, but you get the point.” Marina said, snickering a little.

“Yeah, I get it. But what's the play this year?” Gerard asked, watching Hayley’s eyes light up.

“Grease!” Hayley said, beaming. Gerard’s heart felt like it had been lifted to the heavens. 

“I fuckin’ love Grease.” He said, and Hayley whipped her gaze to Matty.

“Told you! Everybody likes Grease!”

“Hayley that’s one other person you can’t-”

“ _ Everybody _ .”

Matty rolled his eyes at Hayley, but with a smile on his face.

“So…” Gerard said. “Who are you guys gonna try out for?” There was an outburst of character names that shocked Gerard a bit, but Hayley chimed in a little louder than the rest.

“The tryouts are Friday, will you come?” She asked, and Gerard nodded.

“Great! This is gonna be fun.” She said, bouncing a little in her seat.

Matty looked across the cafeteria and his expression turned to an amused smirk.

“Frangipane at nine o’clock.” He said, just as a girl Gerard recognized from ‘the edgy table’ walked up.

“Hello friends, how’s lunch?” She said, smiling at the group. Then she noticed Gerard.

“And who’s this?” She said, sitting down next to Ryan and across from Hayley.

“Name, age, pronouns, go.” She said, which caught Gerard a little off guard, but he still answered.

“Gerard Way, sixteen, he and him.” The girl nodded. 

“Fantastic. Ashley Frangipane, nice to meet you.” Gerard nodded to her.

“So I’m going to assume since you’re hanging with these losers you’re gonna be in the play?” Ashley asked, and Gerard nodded again.

“Great. I’ll see you at auditions then.” She said, taking one of Ryan’s fries.

Almost at that exact moment, a boy walked by drenched in water or some other liquid, wearing glasses and a blue shirt. Ashley noticed his predicament and called out to him:

“Hey Bren, what’s happening?” The boy turned to her with a forced grin.

“Somebody got me wet, unlike you.” He called back, and Gerard heard Ryan mutter “oh shit”, which Gerard completely agreed with.

Ashley rolled her eyes. “I heard nooses are fun, maybe you should try one out!” Bren didn’t even miss a beat.

“No thanks, the only thing I’ll have choking me is your boyfriend in bed.” He smiled and walked away, leaving Ashley shaking her head and smirking.

“He fuckin’ nailed your ass to the ground Ash!” Ryan laughed, which got a punch in the shoulder from her.

“Shut up Ryan.”

-

The day went on faster than Gerard would’ve thought, and it was dismissal before he knew it. He didn’t have a ton of homework, because the teachers were actually pretty lenient about his first day, but he didn’t have a backpack, so he had to carry all of his stuff with him on the bus ride home.

His bus was one of the first buses called, and he ran out to get on, and waited for Mikey in his seat.

Mikey got on the bus a little later than him, and he sat across from Gerard, holding all his books and homework in his hands as well. Luckily the bus wasn’t all that crowded, and most kids were sitting in the back, so they could talk.

“How was the first day, Mikes?”Gerard asked, and Mikey let out a sigh. 

“It was a bit exhausting, but I met a few cool people so it wasn’t that bad.” he said. Gerard was a bit surprised how similar their day’s went. Of course that was based of a very vague description, but it was still similar nonetheless.

“Who were these ‘cool people’?” Gerard asked.

“A guy named Pete Wentz and some of his friends. He’s actually friends with a lot of people in your grade too.” Mikey said.

“Pete Wentz?” Gerard said, wracking his brain to remember where he’d heard that name before.

“Shit! I know him!” Gerard yelled, drawing some attention from some kids behind him.

“We’re mutuals on tumblr, I didn’t know he was your age.” Mikey was laughing at him.

“What’s so funny. Mikey?” He asked.

"Your reaction, you just screamed. It was great.” He laughed, smiling at Gerard.

“Oh shut up, it’s our stop.”


End file.
